In today’s episode of the Microsoft follies, we learned that Media Player 9 is un-uninstallable. Deliberately. A A Microsoft spokesthing confirmed that Media Player 9 is so deeply integrated into the operating system that it cannot be removed without doing a `system restore’. Which, incidentally, will wipe out your Office installation. It’s at times like… Continue reading Living With Microsoft
When there’s nothing left to say, self-parody is the way
I’m just, barely, old enough to remember the anti-war Leftists of the 1960s and 1970s. I disagreed with them over Vietnam then, and I disagree with the anti-war Left’s agitation against a war on Iraq today. But as I read what comes out of minds of people like Robert Fisk and Noam Chomsky and Susan… Continue reading When there’s nothing left to say, self-parody is the way
Right back at ya, Captain
Last Saturday morning in San Diego I had breakfast with Steven den Beste, the redoubtable captain of U.S.S. Clueless. One of the side-effects of that meeting was a long critique of open-source development. Herewith my response. Steve and I agree on the scaling problem that has pushed software development efforts to the ragged edge of… Continue reading Right back at ya, Captain
Run Silent, Go Feep
Warning: The following blog entry provides way more than the recommended daily allowance of geeking. If you don’t have a serious propeller-head streak, surf outta here now before it’s too late. I’m mainly a software guy, but occasionally I build PCs for fun. Design them, rather; the further away I stay from actual hardware the… Continue reading Run Silent, Go Feep
The Non-Portability of Barbecue
(Originally titled: Travelling in Texas) I was on the road in Texas last week, addressing Linux user groups in Dallas and Austin. I always enjoy visiting Texas. It’s a big, wide-open place full of generous people who cultivate a proper appreciation of some of my favorite things in life — firearms, blues guitar, and pepper… Continue reading The Non-Portability of Barbecue
Diet Considered as a Bad Religion
A current New York Times news story, What If It’s All Been A Big Fat Lie, entertainingly chronicles the discovery that low-fat diets are bad for people. More specifically, that the substitution of carbohydrates like bread and pasta and potatoes for meat that we’ve all had urged on us since the early 1980s is probably… Continue reading Diet Considered as a Bad Religion
Winning the War Against Terror
(Final essay of the series.) In previous essays in this series, I have described Islam as a warlike and bloody religion subject to periodic fits of violent fundamentalist revival. I have analyzed the roots of Islamic terror in the Koranic duty of jihad, and elucidated Osama bin Laden’s goal as nothing less than the destruction… Continue reading Winning the War Against Terror
Why Diplomacy Is Doomed
(Fourth essay of a series.) In Mirror, Mirror: Why Americans Don’t Understand the Threat of Jihadism, What al-Qaeda Wants and The Mirage of Moderate Islam, I have described Islam as a warlike and bloody religion subject to periodic fits of violent fundamentalist revival. I have analyzed the roots of Islamic terror in the Koranic duty… Continue reading Why Diplomacy Is Doomed
Mirror, Mirror — why Americans Don’t Understand the Threat of Jihadism
(Third in a series.) In What al-Qaeda Wants and the first essay in this series, The Mirage of Moderate Islam, I have described Islam as a warlike and bloody religion subject to periodic fits of violent fundamentalist revival. I have analyzed the roots of Islamic terror in the Koranic duty of jihad, and elucidated Osama… Continue reading Mirror, Mirror — why Americans Don’t Understand the Threat of Jihadism
What Al-Qaeda wants
(Second in a series.) In a The Mirage of Moderate Islam, I have described the Koranic roots of Islamic fanaticism, and observed that Osama bin Laden’s terror war on the west is part of a recurring pattern of fundamentalist revival associated with jihad in Islamic history. In this essay, I’ll get more specific about what… Continue reading What Al-Qaeda wants
Beating software version fatigue
In his latest Tech Central Station column, Glenn Reynolds complains of `version fatigue’, his accumulating angst over the fact that since the emid-1980s he’s had to migrate through three word processors and several different versions of Windows. I can’t fix the sad fact that every new VCR and remote control you get has a different… Continue reading Beating software version fatigue
The Mirage of Moderate Islam
Diplomatic lies notwithstanding, Islam is anything but a `religion of peace’. Any honest scholar will tell you that Islam is a religion of violence, martyrdom, and conversion by the sword. The duty to wage war for the propagation of the faith is plainly written in the Koran; Osama bin Laden’s suicide bombers are part of… Continue reading The Mirage of Moderate Islam
The Elephant in the Bath-House
Mary Eberstadt’s Weekly Standard article The Elephant in the Sacristy shines a strong light on facts that will discomfit many of the politically correct. I don’t completely agree with her analysis; as Amy Welborn argues, Ms. Eberstadt is too quick to dismiss the role of the doctrine of celibacy in creating an ingrown, perfervid, and… Continue reading The Elephant in the Bath-House
Bad porn reprise
Many people wrote me with comments on my essay Why Does Porn Got To Hurt So Bad?. For all of those who sent praise, thank you. It’s actually nice to know there are so many people who would like to reject the bad-porn aesthetic. For all of those who refrained from calling down fire and… Continue reading Bad porn reprise
After reading too much political news
Top Ten Reasons I’m Not A (Left-)Liberal: Gun control. Liberals are completely wrong about this. A fair number of them know better, too, but they sponsor lies about it as a form of class warfare against conservative-leaning gun owners. Nuclear power. They’re wrong about this, too, and the cost in both dollars and human deaths… Continue reading After reading too much political news
Why does porn got to hurt so bad?
A couple days ago I chased a link over to unablogger and found myself unexpectedly confronted by pictures of naked women. This picture, in particular. And I noticed something unusual — which was that I liked it. Don’t get me wrong, here. I’m a functioning heterosexual male; I enjoy looking at naked women. It’s most… Continue reading Why does porn got to hurt so bad?
Who’s a warblogger? Blogotypology considered
My good buddy Doc Searls says I’m a warblogger, not a techblogger. Truth is I’ve never thought of myself either way. I had only the vaguest notion what a `warblogger’ is until I followed his links to the definitional discussion. I write stuff related to 9/11 because it’s one of the definining events of our… Continue reading Who’s a warblogger? Blogotypology considered
Who’s a warblogger? Blogotypology considered
My good buddy Doc Searls says I’m a warblogger, not a techblogger. Truth is I’ve never thought of myself either way. I had only the vaguest notion what a `warblogger’ is until I followed his links to the definitional discussion. I write stuff related to 9/11 because it’s one of the definining events of our… Continue reading Who’s a warblogger? Blogotypology considered
We are all Jews now
This afternoon I was reading a quote from a woman who had left a comment on Tim Blair’s weblog. She wrote: rld, I feel it’s my duty as a woman to wear clingier clothing, flirt more outrageously, have more orgasms, and get on top more often. In short, anything that’s taboo to the islamofascists.” Boo-yah,… Continue reading We are all Jews now
Arm the Passengers
The recent controversy over arming airline pilots against a possible repetition of the 9/11 atrocity misses a crucial problem that makes arming pilots relatively ineffective: terrorists would know in advance where the guns are, and be able to game against that. Let’s say you are a terrorist executing a hijacking. You know the pilots are… Continue reading Arm the Passengers